Cadenatres and Grupo Radio Centro won the open TV frequency bid in Mexico

Around 7pm (Mexican time) Wednesday March 11th, 2015, Gabriel Contreras, commisioner-president of Mexico’s Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones (IFT), made public that the companies of the Grupo Radio Centro and Cadenatres were the winners of the frequency bid for the forming of two digital open TV chains.”Grupo Radio Centro, 100 points out of 100 possible points; Cadenatres, 89 points out of 100 possible points. By having two finalist proposals that were declared valid, the plenary of the IFT issued a ruling through which Cadenatres and Grupo Radio Centro and Grupo Radio Centro were declared winners of each digital TV chain. It is an unprecedented event; it is very good news for Mexico”, said Contreras when he announced the winners in a conference.The permissions for the exploitation of the signals have a 20-year validity as of 2015. Grupo Radio Centro offered the amount of US$198 million, while Cadenatres offered US$117 million.Both companies bidded for a TV chain, being the minimum reference value US$53, which they exceeded, and a coverage of 106,302,186 people. Currently, Radio Centro controls 15 radio stations in Mexico and the USA; for their part, Cadenatres currently operates one open TV signal, part of the Grupo Imagen, aside from radios stations and publications both in print as well as on the Internet.